Foreign residents not informed enough to want to vote

Foreign residents would sign up to vote in the next communal elections in Luxembourg if they were knew more about local and national politics.

23.04.2015

Foreign residents would sign up to vote in the next communal elections in Luxembourg if they were knew more about local and national politics.

The statement was one of a handful of observations made from a survey about the participation of foreign residents in local elections made by the centre for studies and training CEFIS.

Under Luxembourg law, foreign residents are permitted to vote in communal elections provided they have lived in the Grand Duchy for five or more years.

However, in 2011, only 17 percent of residents meeting this criteria, registered to vote for the communal elections and in 2014, just 12 percent registered to vote in the European elections.

The MIGRALUX 2014 survey presented on Thursday sought to explain why 83 percent of foreign potential voters in one and 88 percent in the second election did not go to the polls.

50% intend to vote

The results showed that half of all people polled intended to register to vote in communal elections in future and the likelihood rose to 54 percent for respondents who felt “attached” to the country.

Meanwhile, increased political participation was linked to higher education levels, professional involvement and, in some cases, nationality.

However, there remained some recurring common features or barriers which, if removed, would make people more inclined to vote, the survey found.

The most commonly cited factors were if the political terrain and debates were more accessible to foreign residents, providing more information on the electoral process and general politics, identifying a personal reason to vote and making voting voluntary rather than compulsory.

Work to be done

CEFIS concluded that the survey showed there was still work to be done to engage this potential electorate in Luxembourg. It suggested taking a “more diverse approach to politics and administration”, easing the process of registering to vote, broadening forein political rights of foreigners under certain conditions and working with the various media in Luxembourg to target Luxembourg's migrant communities.

The survey was conducted with 1,380 people, drawn largely from the four main EU nationalities represented by foreign residents in Luxembourg and the four non-EU nationalities as well as 246 residents of other, less populous nationality groups.

The survey's commissioning was not linked to the referendum to be held in Luxembourg on June 7 in which Luxembourgers will be asked if foreign nationals should be given the right to vote in national elections.

However, the survey's results did show that 61 percent of those polled hoped to vote in Luxembourg legislative elections in future.